The present invention relates to apparatus for transporting rod-shaped articles, especially for transporting plain or filter tipped cigarettes, cigars or cigarillos, filter rod sections or analogous commodities which constitute or form part of rod-shaped smokers' products. More particularly, the invention relates to improvements in apparatus for delivering rod-shaped articles from plural outlets of a pneumatic transporting unit to one or more consuming or processing machines, such as one or more filter tipping, filter plug storing, cigarette storing or analogous machines. Still more particularly, the invention relates to improvements in apparatus for receiving rod-shaped articles from the discharge ends of discrete pipes of a pneumatic transporting unit and for converting such articles into a stream whose components move sideways on to one or more processing or consuming stations.
Not too long ago, the majority of apparatus for transporting rod-shaped articles from one or more producing machines to one or more processing or consuming machines utilized so-called chargers or trays which were loaded or filled at the producing machine and whose contents were dumped into the magazine or other storing means of the associated consuming or processing machine. For example, it was customary to employ chargers or trays for the transport of filter rod sections from a filter rod making machine to a filter tipping machine wherein the sections are severed to yield filter plugs which are assembled with plain cigarettes, cigars or cigarillos to form therewith filter tipped smokers' products. At the present time, such apparatus are often replaced with pneumatic transporting units which comprise one or more elongated pneumatic conveyor pipes serving to transport filter rod sections or other rod-shaped smokers' products axially from a sender to a receiving station. The sender is located at the outlet of the producing machine, and the receiving station is located at the inlet of the processing or consuming machine. The receiving station is equipped with means for accepting rod-shaped articles which are delivered by the conveyor pipes so that they move axially and for converting the arriving articles into component parts of a stream wherein the articles move sideways and are ready to enter the magazine of the producing or consuming machine.
German Offenlegungsschrift No. 2,641,934 discloses a receiving station which accepts a single file of rod-shaped articles from the discharge end of a pneumatic conveyor pipe and includes a braking device which serves to slow down the oncoming articles immediately downstream of the outlet of the pneumatic pipe. The purpose of the braking device is to reduce the speed of all articles to a given value before the articles enter an accelerating device which increases the speed of successive axially moving articles so that each preceding article is separated from the next-following article by a clearance of predetermined width. Such clearances between successive rod-shaped articles of the single file of coaxial articles are desirable in order to allow for unimpeded reorientation of successive foremost articles, i.e., to enable each foremost article to change the direction of its movement from axial movement to sidewise movement without any interference on the part of the next-following article (which latter article continues to move axially while the preceding article begins and continues to move sideways). The deflection or change in orientation of successive articles of the file is effected by a deflecting device which receives the articles while the articles move axially (i.e., which receives a file of coaxial articles) and discharges a stream of articles wherein the articles advance sideways. The deflecting device has a channel wherein the articles of the single file descend under the action of suitable deflecting or orientation changing instrumentalities.
A drawback of the just described conventional apparatus is that their output is relatively low, i.e., one such apparatus must be provided for each pipe of a pneumatic transporting unit. Moreover, if the transporting unit is defective, the associated processing or consuming machine must be arrested because the delivery of rod-shaped articles to its magazine is interrupted practically immediately after the transporting unit ceases to operate in the prescribed manner.
Recent versions of processing or consuming machines for filter rod sections or other types of commodities which constitute or form part of rod-shaped smokers' products can process inordinately large numbers of articles per unit of time. Thus, it is quite customary to operate a processing machine at a speed at which the machine turns out at least one hundred smokers' products per second. The same holds true for the machines which produce rod-shaped smokers' products, e.g., for filter rod making machines or for machines which turn out plain cigarettes, cigars or cigarillos. When a high-speed producing machine is to be coupled to a high-speed processing or consuming machine, the apparatus for transfer of articles from the producing to the processing machine must be capable of delivering articles at a rate which is sufficiently high to accept the entire output of the producing machine as well as to satisfy the requirements of the processing machine. U.S. Pat. No. 3,222,110 discloses an apparatus which serves to transport cigarettes and whose pneumatic transporting unit comprises several discrete pipes for the transport of cigarettes which move axially, one after the other, from a sender to a receiving station. The receiving station defines several paths for the advancement of cigarettes therethrough, namely, a discrete path for each pipe of the pneumatic transporting unit. The receiving station comprises a braking device, an accelerating device and a deflecting device. The arrangement is such that each of these devices defines several paths for the transport of cigarettes from the respective conveyor pipes. The deflecting device delivers cigarettes sideways into a junction zone which is immediately adjacent to the inlet of a cigarette packing machine. The apparatus which are disposed at the receiving station of the just described patented structure are not adjustable so that any regulation of the rate at which the articles leave the junction zone is neither contemplated nor possible.